[pyrnet] Fw: [va-r-l] We Did It! We Did It! We Did It!

["Barb Bowes" <bamb@monmouth.com>]

Well folks, here's some GOOD news from Virginia!  Barb

To: <va-rescue-law@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, June 25, 2002 3:08 PM
Subject: [va-r-l] We Did It! We Did It! We Did It!


Yep.   We did it.

After more than two days of the State Vet's office saying "We're,
um, not mailing out any forms right now, because, err, well, we are,
um, waiting for an opinion from the Attorney General about some
questions with this law" we have some real news.   The tireless
Kathy Ashley reached the attorney in legislative services who
helped draft SB 260 for the Leislatature.   When Kathy went over
what the law said and told the LS person that the State Vet wanted
everyone to register July 1, she said "They can't do that!   I'm going
to call over there and see what the story is."

A few minutes later, she called back:  "They're going to start
registration on January 1 and there will be no fee -- they can't
impose a fee until they write implementing regulations"!   She said
the law has to go through a whole 'Administrative Process Act'
procedure that includes writing regulations, a public comment
period, and so on.

So *registration on July 1 is dead* and *the fee is dead for now*.

See?  Democracy works!   Your letters did the job of sensitizing
the folks in power to the importance of this issue.   You told the
governor "Don't just dump this July 1 registration question on the
State Vet" -- and he heard you and got his Attorney General into
the act.   The AG knew that we were watching, knew that we knew
this was a bad law -- and he too did the right thing.

I can guarantee you that except for your work, we would still be
getting ready to register on July 1.   Congratulations to everyone
who wrote, called, faxed, printed and passed out fliers -- and all the
rest of the work that got us to this point.

As Winston Churchill said in a much more serious situation (the air
Battle of Britain, August-September 1940) "It is not yet the
beginning of the end, but it is the end of the beginning."

Although registration is dead for now, the rest of this nasty law
remains in effect.   We must now turn our efforts to getting it
undone.   But I think we should all take the rest of the day off.
Sharyn and I will be going out for an ice cream cone a little later
and I hope you'll do the same!

Again, congratulations, guys.

Permission to crosspost to any list.

Walt Hutchens